The broken crystals lay strewn across the emerald velvet like small drops of dew on a meadow in the morning.

A northern woman watched as the velvet-covered body of her southern lover was laid to rest on the pyre and then set ablaze to release the spirit trapped within. The cold crystals cracked and popped within the flames, their essence and structure fragmented from the gems that had once shown proudly in the circlets they'd both worn.

The circlets...

Circlets that her brother had bribed the crystal shaper to hide the time crystals in. The crown and tiara pair that her brother had modified so when she and her lover pressed their heads together in affection would cause them to be forever rent asunder.

A tiara that her brother had modified so only one would break in the chaos of the end result.

Her brother...

The one who hated her...

Staring down at the twisted remains of her tiara, the woman swore revenge. I will have him trampled to death by snowies!

In her frustration she felt the ends of her scorched tiara bend beneath her hands slightly. Her mind blanked for a moment but then she felt the hard metal keenly and the world faded around her.

Rising, she went to where her brother was seated on the ground. His knees were bent and tied beneath him, his hands similarly bound behind his back. A dirty strip of cloth served as a gag.

Bidding the two standing guards to leave her for a moment, she regarded her brother. The pause was brief as she began to circle her brother holding her tiara in both hands. After a single circle she stopped to stand behind him.

Knowing the guards would return, she swiftly placed her burnt crown around her brothers neck and with all her hatred and anger bent the ends closed until the skin of the neck began to bleed from the torn edges.

Without looking back to watch her brother flail and gasp for air she returned quietly to sit by the fire. Her tears like shattered crystals in the emerald grass.